


Rise

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Read My Lips [15]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-27 17:29:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6293353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Episode Tag to The Storm/The Eye. Some dialogue lifted straight from the show. For the <a class="i-ljuser-profile" href="http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead"/></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/">comment_fic</a> prompt: "Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, sometimes you don't know your limits until you're forced to test them." Also based on some email exchanges with <a class="i-ljuser-profile" href="http://brumeier.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead"/></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://brumeier.livejournal.com/">brumeier</a> about whether John ever got to go off-world or see any soldier action.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rise

John kept his back pressed against the wall, hands firm on his pistol – he didn't dare let loose with the P-90 if there was any risk of hitting Evan – and waited. Felt. Sensed a pair of footsteps, a single pair, and his breath caught in his throat. Should he look, make sure it was Evan? He was on the balcony below the grounding station, waiting for Evan and the Genii soldiers to arrive so they could spring their trap. How would he know which was Evan and which was an enemy?

His watch-band buzzed. It was Evan. He'd arrived first. The watch-band buzzed again, a series of stops and starts. Morse code. Stay.

 _Two enemy approach,_ Atlantis said. John's throat went dry, but he nodded. She probably didn't care if he responded to her, but she was with him, talking to him. He wasn't alone in this. He felt two more sets of footsteps rumbling through the floor, but he didn't dare move, not till Evan signaled him again.

John had only heard live gunfire once in his life (one of the last things he'd ever heard) but he'd seen plenty of gun fights in movies, had seen a couple of gun-fights up close and personal while off-world. Seeing gun fights in movies without sound was downright silly-looking, actually. Gun-fights in real life while they were trying to out-run Wraith and make it to the gate were terrifying, because he had no idea where the enemy were firing from until he saw the blasts, and he couldn't see bullets, just see blood spraying and dropping bodies, and he had to trust Evan with his life, that when Evan said _Run_ and _That way_ that he wasn't sending John running headlong to his death.

This time, Evan was trusting John with his life.

Atlantis hummed at him, a request, and he closed his eyes. And he could see what she saw, Evan standing at the un-coupling station, the two Genii soldiers hovering in the doorway behind him.

John knew it was damn risky, asking Atlantis to talk to him like this, for so long. She didn't have a lot of power, and she needed every ounce of power for the shields when the time came. But he needed to know what was going on so he could stay alive.

John was jolted out of the vision-link with Atlantis when Evan flung himself over the railing, landed on his back, rolled up into a crouch, and opened fire.

That was the signal.

John was up in a crouch, his posture a mirror to Evan's. He had to pause, recalibrate his sense of the grounding station from Atlantis's top-down view to his own. Where were the enemy?

There.

He raised his pistol.

His heart locked in his throat. His hands shook. Could he do this? He had to do this. They had Rodney. And Elizabeth. And the storm was coming. They had to take back control of the city before the storm hit.

He fired.

The Genii soldier jerked, fell back out of sight.

Evan tapped his shoulder. He was mouthing words, but John's vision was fuzzy around the edges. Evan shook him, and John shook his head, tried to clear it.

"We got them," Evan said. "We're safe for now. This'll really shake them up. We need to –" He tugged John back up onto the grounding station proper so they were away from the balcony and the increasing waves.

Evan paused, fumbled for the walkie strapped to his tac vest.

John appreciated the way Evan made sure John could read his lips as he spoke into the walkie.

The enemy was led by a man named Coal-ya (spelling pointless, since his name was from a different language). Evan's eyes were dark, but John knew from the rise of his eyebrows that he was pouring sarcasm and derision into his voice. Judging by what he was saying, he'd spoken to the enemy commander before.

"Let me tell you what you did wrong here, Coal-ya. A – you lost two of your men. B – you damaged the switch before I could separate the grounding rods, which I'm sure you're going to get an earful from Dr. McKay for. And C – you lost all of what little credibility you had with me."

The switch? John peered at the control panel on the grounding station, and saw the place where the switch was had taken some damage in the fight. There was no smoke rising from it like there would have been in a movie, but John knew that was bad.

_Atlantis? Can you uncouple the station even with the switch broken?_

_Yes. Do you want me to?_

John went to tell Evan, but Evan was still talking.

"I guess we're even then!" He was taunting the enemy. He paused, and fury crossed his face. "I'm not finished yet!"

His next words made John's heart crawl into his throat all over again. "The city has a self-destruct button. You hurt her, I'll activate it. Nobody will get Atlantis." The icy fury in Evan's eyes was terrifying.

John shook his head. _No. Don't do it. Not Rodney –_ He mouthed the words desperately, but Evan wasn't listening.

He was shouting the enemy's name over and over again. He looked scared beneath his fury. "I'll give you a ship! I'll fly it out of here for you myself!"

The enemy wasn't responding. Evan looked ready to fling his walkie over the edge of the balcony, but he kept his grip on it white-knuckled. He shouted the enemy's name again, but there was no response, no –

Whatever came out of the radio next made Evan turn pale.

John snapped his fingers under Evan's nose. "What happened?"

"He – he killed Weir."

John's heart stopped. It restarted a moment later when Atlantis said, _Elizabeth's life sign is still present in the control tower._ John snapped his fingers at Evan again. "Atlantis says he's lying, that Elizabeth is still alive."

Evan blinked at him. "What? She can tell you that?"

John nodded. "Do you want me to ask Atlantis to hide you from the life signs detectors too?"

Evan started to nod, then shook his head. "No. I have a plan. We need to get Coal-ya to split his forces. And we need to act like we believe Elizabeth is dead. Here's what we're going to do."

Evan walked backwards through the corridor and they headed for their next destination, signing rapidly. He was good at walking backwards. He said it was something all good interpreters should be able to do.

John didn't dare look down at the man he'd killed as they ducked out of the grounding station, while Evan stole the man's radio wrist device. Didn't look into his staring, lifeless eyes or at the bloodstain that had blossomed on his uniform jacket or –

His wrist buzzed.

He looked up at Evan, whose soldier's mien wavered. "John, I'm sorry. But we have to go. We have to do this for Weir and McKay."

Rodney. Right. John gripped his gun and nodded and paid attention to Evan's instructions.

"I can tell Atlantis to uncouple the grounding station," John said.

Evan paused mid-stream of words. "Really?"

"She doesn't need the switch to do it, obviously."

Evan thought quickly. "No. Don't do that unless Coal-ya gives me word that McKay can't fix it."

"Rodney can fix it."

"But if Rodney and Elizabeth don't need to fix the switch, then Coal-ya doesn't need to keep them alive."

"He'll need Rodney to raise the shields."

"But not Elizabeth. Can Atlantis get a message to Rodney?"

"He'll probably need to plug in his data pad to work on the switch. She can send a message to that."

"Okay. Tell Rodney I'm alive. Don't say anything about you – he can't know you're alive, or he'll give the game away. He's a terrible liar. Tell Atlantis to uncouple the switch just enough that no one should be able to tell at first glance that it's already been done. Tell Rodney to tell Coal-ya it'll take an hour to repair the switch, and that he needs Elizabeth alive because he needs her access codes to raise the shields."

John nodded, and Atlantis began building a message in the system to appear for Rodney as soon as his data pad was connected to her again.

"Okay. Let's head to the generator room."

The plan was simple – Evan and John would let the Genii track them on the life signs detector (Atlantis let John know as soon as the Genii accessed it and started using it), lure whoever was sent after Evan into a trap with Evan as bait and ambush them. That would only work on Coal-ya once, Evan thought. He was a smart man, enemy though he was. Their next stop would be one of the generator stations. They'd hang around long enough for the Genii manning the life signs detector to note their location and before asking Atlantis to cut power. The Genii would be very confused when they arrived and the generator looked like it was intact but power had been cut. They'd cut the control room first to cut off the life signs detector, and then they'd cut off power to the grounding station (Evan suggested they tell Rodney not to worry about that, then said no, let him freak out, it would sell the lie better).

As they hurried through the corridors, Atlantis let him know Rodney and Elizabeth were alive, were okay. Evan took point, explaining step-by-step what he was going to do. Atlantis didn't detect walkways above floors as separate floors, so people could be one right on top of each other and the life signs detector wouldn't differentiate between the two groups. That would mess with the Genii. And Evan had smoke grenades. He warned John before the deployed them. John hated them. Now not only could he not hear, he couldn't see. But his job was to hide in a room adjacent to the one Evan had picked for his ambush and wait for the signal. He opened the lock and stepped into what looked like someone else's office, and waited. He sensed the boot steps in the corridor. Three men, according to Atlantis. He waited, prayed Evan was in place.

His watch buzzed.

He swung out into the hallway, followed the smoke into the room, and let loose with his P-90 at the smoke. He couldn't even see in there, just kept firing until his watch buzzed once more, and he let go of the trigger.

Evan stepped out of the smoke a moment later, his expression hard.

"Good job. Let's go."

John started to crane his neck, to peer into the room, but Evan grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, wouldn't let him go back. They had work to do. Just work. John had had to do it, to protect Rodney and Elizabeth and the city. He had to. Those men would have killed him and Evan without hesitation.

He stumbled.

Evan's tight grip on his tac vest stopped him from toppling over.

"Keep moving," Evan mouthed.

John nodded, but his knees felt weak, his vision going spotty.

He staggered again.

Evan pinned him against the wall. "Stay with me, John." He gazed right into John's eyes. "I need you. I can't do this without you. You have to stay with me. Understand?"

John tried to nod.

Evan reached into his tac vest, drew out a power bar. "Eat this. Can't have you crashing from your adrenaline yet. Get some sugar into you."

John unwrapped the bar with shaking hands. Evan kept him upright against the wall till he'd finished the power bar, till his knees were working again. Bile rose in John's throat, but he swallowed it down.

"You ready?" Evan asked.

John nodded, and Evan stepped back.

They headed for the generator that powered the Control Room and the life signs detector, waited around. Atlantis let John know when the Genii in the Control Room was sufficiently interested in where they were, and then she shut down power.

Perfect.

Evan nodded, got ready to turn to go, and then he paused, listening do to the radio device he'd stolen.

"Dammit. They're calling for reinforcements. We need to get to Operations –"

John shook his head. "We can ask Atlantis to raise the shield on the gate. Their reinforcements won't get through." Like bugs on a windshield, Rodney had said once.

Evan blinked at him. "Are you sure?"

John nodded. His stomach churned, but he tried to ignore it.

Evan's gaze turned unfocused, internal while he thought. "It makes sense. If reinforcements come through, we'll never be able to get Rodney and Elizabeth back. Luring them to generator stations won't matter. But if their reinforcements don't make it, he'll have no choice but to send people after us."

"We need to be in the Control Tower when the lightning strikes," John reminded him.

Evan nodded. "Okay. Let's go."

The plan was pretty simple from here on out. Coal-ya was expecting only Evan at any one of the generator stations. With Atlantis keeping an eye out for John, they were going to break protocol and split up. John would take one, Evan would take another. Two birds with one stone, so to speak. Once all of the other Genii forces were - were _gone_ , they could take back the Control Tower.

 _If I raise the shield on the ring,_ Atlantis said, _the Genii scientist could disable it._

She wasn't quite an AI, wasn't quite a person. She obeyed commands put to her.

Dammit. John veered away from his original course and started heading for the control tower. He'd try to take one of the generator rooms later.

The only way for Atlantis to get a message to Evan was by manifesting her voice over the comm units for him, because his gene wasn't strong enough to interface with her directly. John couldn't risk a message over the comms in case the Genii were listening.

His heartbeat was stuttering, but he had a job to do. Atlantis had notified him as soon as Rodney and Elizabeth were at the grounding station, that they'd received the message they thought was from Evan, and they were following its instructions very closely. Atlantis was also giving Rodney instructions on how to fix the switch for real, because they'd need that switch in the future, and John wouldn't always be around to make sure the switch could be used.

Rodney. He was alive. He was okay. John would see him again. He could do this. Evan could do this. Evan was a damn good soldier. The marines made fun of Air Force officers for being pansy flyboys, but they'd held their own. It was going to all be all right.

Don't panic.

Atlantis guided him into the control room, and he kept a wary eye out. Saw a pretty red-headed girl in a Genii uniform down by the gate.

The scientist remained behind at the control panel.

The gate activated.

_Raise the shields, now!_

Atlantis obeyed.

John lunged at the scientist, drove a fist into his face, followed it up with a knee as he fell and a hammer-fist to the back of the head before he hit the ground. Sparks danced off the railing to his right. They were shooting at him. He let loose with his P-90 and sprinted for cover. He didn't stop running till he was in a transporter and three levels away, on his way back to the generator station.

He'd almost made it into the side room beside the generator station when his legs gave out. He collapsed against the wall, breathing hard, vision swimming, eyes brimming with tears. He forced himself to crawl all the way into the room, and then he doubled over and retched.

He'd seen, out of the corner of his eye, the shield flashing as men crashed into it. As men died. So many men.

It had been his idea to raise the shield, his idea to – to _murder_ –

John curled him a ball and sobbed like he hadn't since he was sixteen when one of the nurses at the hospital had told him, using a miniature white-board and a marker, that his mother was dead. He'd left her to die.

Part of his mind was panicking. He'd left Evan in the lurch. He had to get the soldiers who came to his generator station. He needed to save Rodney, but he couldn't, stop shaking, couldn't get up, couldn't move, couldn't couldn't couldn't –

Atlantis told him that help had arrived. Teldy, Teyla, Ford, Beckett.

He felt two pairs of footsteps rumble across the floor just outside his door. The Genii soldiers.

He couldn't move.

Then he felt, softer, more footsteps. Teldy and the team.

 _Get up, John,_ Atlantis whispered. _Control. It's shielded. You must go._

No. He couldn't. He –

An image of Rodney flashed through his mind, Rodney panicking as his hands flew over one of the consoles. It wasn't going to work. It –

_GO!_

Atlantis's presence rocketed through him, propelled him onto his feet. His arms wind milled. He caught himself against the wall. He was upright. He was standing. He gathered up his weapons, asked Atlantis to check the hallway, and then he ran.

Running was what he did when he wanted to clear his mind. Running let him feel free. Running was almost as good as flying.

He was running for his life. He had to get back to the Control Tower before the storm hit. Had to, had to, had to –

Atlantis screamed at him again. _Turn! Duck! Hide!_

He'd been about to burst across the floor of the gate room. He froze.

The gate had been activated. The scientist John had taken down was awake, was vanishing into the event horizon. Teldy, Teyla, Ford, Beckett, and Lorne were arrayed in front of Elizabeth like a shield. A man John had never seen before had an arm locked around Rodney's throat, a gun pointed at his head.

He didn't know John was there.

No one did.

John didn't even think.

He saw the terror on Rodney's face, the blood on his arm from where he'd been hurt.

John drew his M9 and fired.

The man loosed Rodney, fell back into the event horizon even as blood spread across his uniform jacket. Rodney scrambled to his feet, eyes wide, mouth moving too fast to read. Everyone was probably shouting. John didn't care. He grabbed Rodney's hand, and together they ran for the shield control panel.

 _Atlantis,_ John begged. _The shield. Please._

Down below, the stargate shut down.

And then John felt the energy building in the corridors, the humming, as the shield started to rise.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Rise (Rodney Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6321958) by [nagi_schwarz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz)




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